Megyn Kelly Has a Point: How Long Has Scarborough Been Sitting on That Trump Nukes Story?

Fox News host Megyn Kelly took a swipe at her MSNBC counterpart Joe Scarborough last night following his dire warning about Donald Trump earlier in the day. Scarborough had sought to illustrate the Apricot Demagogue's loose grip on the rules of engagement when it comes to nuclear weapons by recounting a story from "a foreign policy expert" he knows who met with Trump:

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"Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times, he asked, at one point, 'If we have them, we can't we use them?' Three times, in an hour briefing, 'Why can't we use nuclear weapons?'"

This is bad. But as Kelly sought to prove last night, so was Scarborough's treatment of Trump and his antics throughout the primary:

She's not wrong that Scarborough and his Morning Joe co-hosts often brought out the kid gloves to handle Trump whenever he'd come on. (Disclosure: I interned on the Morning Joe set for 3 months in 2013.) It got to the point that they had to beat back accusations they were in his camp on air, after it emerged Trump had asked for softball questions on a hot mic between segments and NBC officials had grown "uncomfortable" with Trump and Scarborough's relationship.

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Trump is now the nominee, of course, but he and Scarborough are no longer amigos. The MSNBC star is now rallying the forces of anti-Trumpism. Whether, as Kelly says, that's because "Trump got mad at him" and "stopped saying nice things about him" seems less important than some other questions, like: How long has Scarborough known about this nuclear weapon horror story, assuming it's true? Did he sit on it through the primaries? If so, why? And why did he decide to make it public now?

Regardless, Kelly is clearly trying to hold the Johnny-Come-Latelys of the NeverTrump movement to account. There has indeed been a groundswell of criticism in the media this week, but a lot of the controversy was there for all to see long before Trump clinched the nomination. Kelly was there to call it out early—her backslide in a one-on-one interview notwithstanding—and will survive the Trump era in better repute than many of her colleagues. Unless, that is, he wins, and sends her and the rest of the UnTrumpables on a NASA mission to the Sun.